League changes for Season 4

Annual Update

We have continued to grow at a phenomenal rate – regularly achieving between 30 – 40 new pubs joining out League every season! Taking into account cancellations (churn is very normal), we aim to grow our numbers by around 30 pubs every season. The great thing about achieving these sorts of numbers is that it proves to us that our product is good, and that it works for both pubs and players. Always nice to know :).

In addition to the above, we have been working hard on getting word of our League out to various pub companies. Through outreach, relationship development, and trade-shows, we are starting to see great progress in this area. Ultimately this means more growth, and a bigger prize pool for you players to shoot for!

As we get bigger, the administrative side of running a nationwide Poker League becomes more challenging. To deal with this we have recruited another member to the team to head up the brand new accounts department! If growth continues at this rate we also anticipate hiring a new account manager to assist with customer service, events, and sales before the end of the year.

All-in-all, its been a great year for us, as we continue to refine and get better at everything that goes on behind the scenes. We are going to continue pushing for growth, so that we can keep growing the prize pool and delivering fantastic value to our players!

League changes for Season 4

We have a number of really exciting changes planned for Season 4. Without any further ado – here they are!

1) Pub2Pro sponsorship

We have decided to completely change the way that we award the £5,000 Sponsorship package.

For Season 4 onwards (so AFTER the Season 3 Grand-final) the sponsorship prize will no longer be awarded to 1st place at the Grand-final. Instead, we will be using a points based system, and the player with the most points at the end of the year will be the sponsorship winner.

Players will earn points towards the sponsorship prize by qualifying towards, and taking part in, our events (both the Semi-finals and the Grand-final). The top 20 players from every event will earn points – the higher you finish, the more points you earn – just like the weekly pub nights! The idea behind this is that we want the most consistent players to have the sponsorship opportunity.

For example – imagine that a player comes 2nd in all four Semi-finals, and then comes 2nd in the Grand final. Compare this to a player who came 10th in one Semi-final, didn’t attend any other Semi-finals, and managed to take 1st place at the Grand-final. In this example, I’m sure everyone would agree that the first player would be more deserving of the sponsorship opportunity!

In addition to this, the new points system will also provide incentive for the people who have already qualified to the Grand-final to continue playing over the course of the year.

Qualified to more than one Semi-final?

If you qualify to take part in more than 1 Semi-final, you will not earn double the points. Instead, we will take your highest finish from the season’s Semi-finals as your score. This means that you have the added advantage of having multiple chances of getting the most points possible!

2) Additional Semi-final

Due to the amazing growth of our League, we will need to start hosting a 4th Semi-final every season. This means an additional £2,000 in cash will be given out every season (£8,000 per year), plus an additional 40 seats to the annual Grand-final.

As we add more and more events, it becomes even more important that everyone checks which event your pub has been assigned to. We will be adding this information to each venue page in the coming weeks. You can also check this on the upcoming events page.

3) Increasing the prize pool!

As the Grand-final winner will no longer be winning the sponsorship package (unless they also happen to have the most points), we will be making up for this by adding an additional £5,000 to the prize pool. This means that on top of the £5,000 sponsorship package, the Grand-final will continue to be a £25,000 tournament, the winner of which will take home £10,000 in pure cash!

If you add all of this together, including the money from the extra Semi-final, this means that for Season 4 we will be giving out an enormous £62,000 in cash!

4) Semi-final payout structure

From Season 4 onwards, the £2,000 prize pool at each Semi-final will be distributed between the top 10 players only. This is because we will be looking to cap the number of entries to each Semi-final at around 120 players (max), and we think that paying 1/6th of the field would be far too wide.

The new Semi-final payout structure will be as follows:

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

£600

£400

£240

£185

£150

£125

£105

£85

£65

£45

5) Price increase

While this is less important for players, we thought we would let you all know about this here too.

In order to help fund the cost increase from the higher prize pool and the additional staff, for the first time in the company’s history we will be raising our prices. From Season 4b onwards (30th April), prices will be increased by £1/week per ticket (this does not include the complimentary TD ticket).

The new prices will therefore be as follows:

Package

Old Price

Increase

New Price

Bronze

£10/wk

+£1/wk

£11/wk

Silver

£15/wk

+£2/wk

£17/wk

Gold

£20/wk

+£3/wk

£23/wk

Platinum (4 tickets)

£25/wk

+£4/wk

£29/wk

Platinum (5 tickets)

£30/wk

+£5/wk

£35/wk

Wrap up

That just about does it! As usual, if anyone has any questions on any of the above, please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks again to everyone who takes part in our League. Without you guys, none of this would be possible. We can’t wait to see what the next year brings – hopefully we can continue to grow as a League which will in turn allow us to continue to raise the prize pool.